I will first state the brief history of Information Systems of USEP. Few years ago, the University through the Institute of Computing (IC) was able to develop an Information Systems Strategic Plan (ISSP) which was approved by the National Computer Center. The approved ISSP of the University Management Information Systems (UMIS) and is now an integral part of the long leap project of the Institute of Computing. Part of the plan was to develop an information system that will handle the student records, registration and enrolment. Other components of the ISSP include financial management information system, supplies and resources management information system, human resources management information system, research and extension management information system and general administrative information system.
Sometime in 2008, the Office of the University President commissioned the IC to develop an enrolment system of the University. This was brought about by the looming prices of outsourced computer systems which the University has been using for three years. The primary objective in developing an enrolment system of the University is to come up with internally developed system for enrolment which is less costly, efficient and flexible. With this, two programmers, Dr. Tamara Cher R. Mercado and Engr. Michael Angelo Cagape were tasked to develop the enrolment system with the guidance of the Dean of the Institute of Computing, Engr. Val A. Quimno.
Summer of SY 2008-2009, the IC has just implemented the newly developed Student Records Management Information System (SRMIS). The SRMIS as a pilot project of IC is eyed as an efficient and effective management information system with minimal cost of development. Also, the SRMIS has a potential of becoming a marketable product that can later be translated as an income generating project (IGP) of the university.
As proposed, the following are the expected outputs of the SRMIS project:
Output 1: Student Records & Registration Module – This module aims to develop an automated system for the registration and record keeping of the student’s records to be handled by the Office of the Admission and Student Records and the Registrar’s Office. All colleges and affected offices are expected to use this module for the loading and retrieval of student records
Output 2: Student Assessment Module – This module will handle assessment of fees per student depending on the number of units taken. Also, additional fees such as laboratory, internet, library, insurance and other fees will automatically be computed and reflected in the student’s certificate of registration. This module is an integral part of the Student Records & Registration Module and Cashiering and Collections module.
Output 3: Cashiering and Collections Module – This module provides a comprehensive range of functions in relation to cashiering and collection. This module will handle all transactions related to cashiering and collection of students fess and other fees. This module will be designed for its future integration in the New Government Accounting System (NGAS) which the Finance/Accounting Department is currently using.
Outsourcing and insourcing can both be described generally as, the acquisition of internally required resources obtained from an external source. With respect to freight transportation management, the following outsourced services are fairly common and some were even available at the beginning: Freight Bill Auditing -- both pre and post, management reports; Loss and Damage claim handling; and Transportation purchasing. Outsourcing firms perform these services, as well as others, at their locations; whereas the insourcing firm would deliver the functional programs over the Internet or intranets for use by the client. Outsourcing tends to be exclusive, that is, client interaction is typically limited to processing and rules questions raised by the vendor. On the other hand, insourcing is inclusive and these firms interact with their clients in order to lead the market through innovation and continuous program improvement. Like the Microsoft business practice of maintaining a high level of program and system operating performance through heuristic client interaction and automated Internet downloads, insourcing firms seem to be mimicking this model. The primary differentiators between insourcing and outsourcing are concept, business model, and delivery methodologies.
Outsourcing has recently become a new hot topic in microfinance, at least among those of us following technology trends. The general idea is that by allowing someone else to manage some or all of your technology, your time is freed up to focus on what you know best, working with clients. Outsourcing would allow small Microfinance Industries (MFIs) to focus their limited human resources on their core business rather than on technology. And just like Salesforce.com and other Software as a Service (SaaS) products have improved the lot of small and medium businesses in the US, outsourcing could change the playing field for microfinance by providing small MFIs with access to more secure and robust systems.
Outsourcing provided a beneficial alternative to the in-house traffic department. With the advent of inexpensive computers and computerization, clever audit firms capitalized on those advantages. Through the economies of scale, the audit firm could afford to channel its intelligence and financial resources to develop and improve the associated practices and services necessary to create transportation management service advantages that individual companies could not or chose not to do. With appropriate customer mass, and because of standardized tariffs outsourcing was a reasonably profitable business for both the provider and the customer. Outsourcing remains a viable business alternative for some in-house tasks and services.
If have to choose between in-source or outsource. I will go for outsourcing the information systems of USEP. As I know, any organization that has an in-sourced information systems must have an IS/IT Department. USEP has no IS/IT Department. Institute of Computing (IC) is not an IS/IT Department. It is a college. There is no team of programmers who will maintain the information systems of the school, the SRMIS. Information systems must go to updating, repairing, modifying, and expanding from time to time in order to accommodate the needs of the clients of the school, e.g. students. In my knowledge, only Engr. Cagape owns the positions of application programmer and systems programmer of the school. Application programmers write programs to handle a specific job, such as a program to track inventory within an organization. He also may revise existing packaged software or customize generic applications which are frequently purchased from independent software vendors. Systems programmers, in contrast, write programs to maintain and control computer systems software, such as operating systems and database management systems. In other organizations, these two information system specialist positions must have a separate individual, handling their duties and responsibilities. At this time, Engr. Cagape in on leave and the question is what happens to the maintenance of the SRMIS of the school.
In my opinion, outsourced information systems are much better than in-source. I believe that outsourced information systems can resolve the problems of in-sourced information systems of USEP through developing new applications, updating outdated custom software, replacing developers/programmers who are no longer available, solving software compatibility difficulties, completing unfinished software development projects, providing support for new IT services personnel, automating organizational processes, fixing problems with proprietary applications, addressing unique business requirements, porting software to web, desktop, and PDA applications, creating custom device drivers for specialized applications.
I also believe that outsourced information systems save time and money. Outsource takes forward thinking, expertise, and innovation to develop high-quality information systems functions and applications that work for any organizations, schools, and universities like information systems should, that are created cost efficiently and timely, and that will serve your needs into the future. Those attributes resulted in a fundamentally different approach to information systems development. I am also convinced that outsourced information systems can offer a more robust and secure core information systems application, increased functionality, such as full integration between portfolio, accounting, and client information modules, ability to network with other university offices and eventually payments systems allowing colleges to offer better services to students, improved reporting capacity, both for internal management purposes as well as reporting to stockholders of the school, and ease of mind from not managing costly and complicated servers in-house.
I have faith in company who offers outsourced information systems in software development which is flexible, which accommodates specific software requirements, and which provides detailed, thorough, clearly-spelled-out estimates you can rely on. The university will work with a software developer who provides documentation that's clear, concise, and error-free. And the school will discover what it's like to work with an experienced programmer who understands the business requirements. Outsourcing remains a viable, but transitioning business alternative to many in-house transportation management tasks and services.
That is my position of the status of information systems of the university. I will go for the outsource.
Sometime in 2008, the Office of the University President commissioned the IC to develop an enrolment system of the University. This was brought about by the looming prices of outsourced computer systems which the University has been using for three years. The primary objective in developing an enrolment system of the University is to come up with internally developed system for enrolment which is less costly, efficient and flexible. With this, two programmers, Dr. Tamara Cher R. Mercado and Engr. Michael Angelo Cagape were tasked to develop the enrolment system with the guidance of the Dean of the Institute of Computing, Engr. Val A. Quimno.
Summer of SY 2008-2009, the IC has just implemented the newly developed Student Records Management Information System (SRMIS). The SRMIS as a pilot project of IC is eyed as an efficient and effective management information system with minimal cost of development. Also, the SRMIS has a potential of becoming a marketable product that can later be translated as an income generating project (IGP) of the university.
As proposed, the following are the expected outputs of the SRMIS project:
Output 1: Student Records & Registration Module – This module aims to develop an automated system for the registration and record keeping of the student’s records to be handled by the Office of the Admission and Student Records and the Registrar’s Office. All colleges and affected offices are expected to use this module for the loading and retrieval of student records
Output 2: Student Assessment Module – This module will handle assessment of fees per student depending on the number of units taken. Also, additional fees such as laboratory, internet, library, insurance and other fees will automatically be computed and reflected in the student’s certificate of registration. This module is an integral part of the Student Records & Registration Module and Cashiering and Collections module.
Output 3: Cashiering and Collections Module – This module provides a comprehensive range of functions in relation to cashiering and collection. This module will handle all transactions related to cashiering and collection of students fess and other fees. This module will be designed for its future integration in the New Government Accounting System (NGAS) which the Finance/Accounting Department is currently using.
Outsourcing and insourcing can both be described generally as, the acquisition of internally required resources obtained from an external source. With respect to freight transportation management, the following outsourced services are fairly common and some were even available at the beginning: Freight Bill Auditing -- both pre and post, management reports; Loss and Damage claim handling; and Transportation purchasing. Outsourcing firms perform these services, as well as others, at their locations; whereas the insourcing firm would deliver the functional programs over the Internet or intranets for use by the client. Outsourcing tends to be exclusive, that is, client interaction is typically limited to processing and rules questions raised by the vendor. On the other hand, insourcing is inclusive and these firms interact with their clients in order to lead the market through innovation and continuous program improvement. Like the Microsoft business practice of maintaining a high level of program and system operating performance through heuristic client interaction and automated Internet downloads, insourcing firms seem to be mimicking this model. The primary differentiators between insourcing and outsourcing are concept, business model, and delivery methodologies.
Outsourcing has recently become a new hot topic in microfinance, at least among those of us following technology trends. The general idea is that by allowing someone else to manage some or all of your technology, your time is freed up to focus on what you know best, working with clients. Outsourcing would allow small Microfinance Industries (MFIs) to focus their limited human resources on their core business rather than on technology. And just like Salesforce.com and other Software as a Service (SaaS) products have improved the lot of small and medium businesses in the US, outsourcing could change the playing field for microfinance by providing small MFIs with access to more secure and robust systems.
Outsourcing provided a beneficial alternative to the in-house traffic department. With the advent of inexpensive computers and computerization, clever audit firms capitalized on those advantages. Through the economies of scale, the audit firm could afford to channel its intelligence and financial resources to develop and improve the associated practices and services necessary to create transportation management service advantages that individual companies could not or chose not to do. With appropriate customer mass, and because of standardized tariffs outsourcing was a reasonably profitable business for both the provider and the customer. Outsourcing remains a viable business alternative for some in-house tasks and services.
If have to choose between in-source or outsource. I will go for outsourcing the information systems of USEP. As I know, any organization that has an in-sourced information systems must have an IS/IT Department. USEP has no IS/IT Department. Institute of Computing (IC) is not an IS/IT Department. It is a college. There is no team of programmers who will maintain the information systems of the school, the SRMIS. Information systems must go to updating, repairing, modifying, and expanding from time to time in order to accommodate the needs of the clients of the school, e.g. students. In my knowledge, only Engr. Cagape owns the positions of application programmer and systems programmer of the school. Application programmers write programs to handle a specific job, such as a program to track inventory within an organization. He also may revise existing packaged software or customize generic applications which are frequently purchased from independent software vendors. Systems programmers, in contrast, write programs to maintain and control computer systems software, such as operating systems and database management systems. In other organizations, these two information system specialist positions must have a separate individual, handling their duties and responsibilities. At this time, Engr. Cagape in on leave and the question is what happens to the maintenance of the SRMIS of the school.
In my opinion, outsourced information systems are much better than in-source. I believe that outsourced information systems can resolve the problems of in-sourced information systems of USEP through developing new applications, updating outdated custom software, replacing developers/programmers who are no longer available, solving software compatibility difficulties, completing unfinished software development projects, providing support for new IT services personnel, automating organizational processes, fixing problems with proprietary applications, addressing unique business requirements, porting software to web, desktop, and PDA applications, creating custom device drivers for specialized applications.
I also believe that outsourced information systems save time and money. Outsource takes forward thinking, expertise, and innovation to develop high-quality information systems functions and applications that work for any organizations, schools, and universities like information systems should, that are created cost efficiently and timely, and that will serve your needs into the future. Those attributes resulted in a fundamentally different approach to information systems development. I am also convinced that outsourced information systems can offer a more robust and secure core information systems application, increased functionality, such as full integration between portfolio, accounting, and client information modules, ability to network with other university offices and eventually payments systems allowing colleges to offer better services to students, improved reporting capacity, both for internal management purposes as well as reporting to stockholders of the school, and ease of mind from not managing costly and complicated servers in-house.
I have faith in company who offers outsourced information systems in software development which is flexible, which accommodates specific software requirements, and which provides detailed, thorough, clearly-spelled-out estimates you can rely on. The university will work with a software developer who provides documentation that's clear, concise, and error-free. And the school will discover what it's like to work with an experienced programmer who understands the business requirements. Outsourcing remains a viable, but transitioning business alternative to many in-house transportation management tasks and services.
That is my position of the status of information systems of the university. I will go for the outsource.
